1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for retaining the intermediate portion of an occupant restraining webbing of a seatbelt system for a vehicle designed to protect an occupant in an emergency situation of the vehicle, so as to ensure a sufficient space for the occupant to enter and leave the vehicle smoothly.
2. Description of the Related Art
One type of automatic seatbelt system has heretofore been proposed in which one end of a webbing is secured to a door of a vehicle such that the webbing is automatically fastened to the body of an occupant in response to the closing motion of the door. In this type of seatbelt system, when the occupant closes the door after seating himself in the seat, the intermediate portion of the webbing is moved toward the rear end of the vehicle in response to the closing circular motion of the door, and the webbing is therefore automatically fastened to the body of the occupant seated in the seat. When the door is opened, the intermediate portion of the webbing is moved toward the front end of the vehicle in response to the opening circular motion of the door, and the webbing is therefore separated from the occupant's body, thus providing a space between the webbing and the seat which allows the occupant to enter and leave the vehicle smoothly.
In one arrangement of such automatic seatbelt system, a hook is provided near the front end of the door for retaining the intermediate portion of the webbing so that it is possible to ensure a sufficient space for the occupant to enter and leave the vehicle smoothly irrespective of the angle of opening of the door. This arrangement suffers, however, from the inconvenience in use that, for instance, when the occupant leaves the vehicle, he needs to actuate the hook by hand so that it can retain the intermediate portion of the webbing.
There is another type of conventional webbing intermediate portion retaining apparatus in which, as shown in FIG. 14, a hanger 2 is provided on the intermediate portion of a webbing 1, and an engagement opening 3 provided in the hanger 2 is engaged with a projection 5 of a hook 4 which is secured near the front end of the door. In this apparatus, however, the projection 5 for retaining the hanger 2 must be designed so as not to accidentally catch the occupant's clothes or the like. In addition a range X within which the hanger 2 can be hooked over the hook 4 is relatively narrow, and this limits the operation of hooking the hanger 2 and requires a relatively large turning force when the hanger 2 is disengaged from the hook 4.